Hal McRae is named manager of the Kansas City Royals. He is one of two African-American managers serving In major league baseball.

Leontyne Price opens Metropolitan Opera Season

Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler declared slaves contraband of war.

Victor O. Frazer, attorney and politician, was born May 24, 1943 in Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands to Albert Frazer and Amanda Blyden.   He graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School in 1960.  In 1964, he earned a B.A. degree from Fisk University. In 1971, he received his J.D. from Howard University Law School and subsequently was admitted to legal bars of New York, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virgin Islands.

In 1974 Frazer began his law career in Washington, D.C. at the Office of the Corporation Counsel (later known as the Office of the Attorney General of D.C.).  He later served as a lawyer for the Interstate Commerce Commission and the U.S. Patent Office.

In 1987 he served as general counsel for the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority.  Frazer’s congressional interest developed while working as an administrative assistant for California Representative Mervyn Dymally and as a special assistant for Michigan Representative John Conyers.

In 1992, Frazer entered the political arena as a candidate for Delegate from the Virgin Islands.   He unsuccessfully challenged Virgin Islands incumbent delegate Ron de Lugo.  In 1994, Lugo retired and Frazer defeated Eileen Peterson for de Lugo’s vacant seat.  During his tenure in Congress, Frazer urged more federal funding to fight the international drug trafficking in the U.S. territory and increased disaster relief for hurricane victims in the Virgin Islands.   Frazer failed in his re-election bid in 1996.

After his serving in Congress, Frazer returned to practicing law in D. C.  He is divorced and has two daughters, Kaaren and Aileene.

Racial segregation in Washington, D.C., restaurants ruled illegal by Municipal Court of Appeals.

Twenty-seven Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi. On June 12, Hinds County Board of Supervisor announced that more than one hundred Freedom Riders had been arrested.

The Pottawatomie Massacre took place in Kansas. A pro-slavery settlement in Franklin County was attacked by an anti-slavery group led by John Brown.

Utilizing the research of Professor Dominique-René de Lerma of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, historian William J. Zick in the article below provides vignettes which comprise an overview of various composers and musicians of African ancestry who performed in Europe, North America, and Latin America from the 16th Century to the 20th Century. His listing begins with the earliest known black performer, John Blanke, a royal trumpeter in the Courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII.

English Royal records document the employment of John Blanke, listed as “the blacke trumpeter” and paid by the day by both Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII.  A pictorially illuminated manuscript of the Tournament of Westminster on New Year’s Day in 1511, commissioned by Henry VIII to celebrate the birth of his son (who died as an infant) to his wife Catherine of Aragon, clearly portrays Blanke as a mounted black trumpeter.

Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) was an African composer and author whose published letters tell much about his life.  Raised as a house slave in Greenwich, England, he taught himself to read and educated himself very broadly from books owned by an aristocratic family with whom he obtained employment as a young man.  Sixty-two of his short compositions survive in four self-published volumes.   

Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799), an Afro-French composer, violinist, and conductor, won his first fame not as a musician but as Frances best fencer.  Born Joseph de Bologne, on December 25, 1745 on a plantation near Basse-Terre, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, he was the son of a slave woman of African descent and a French plantation owner.  Educated in France, de Bologne was only 19 when his mastery of the violin and the harpsichord earned him a dedication from Antonio Lolli in 1764.  More came from François-Joseph Gossec (1766) and Carl Stamitz (1770).  By 1771, Saint-Georges was first violin of a distinguished 70-member ensemble, Le Concert des amateurs.   He became one of the earliest French

Dr. Peter Murray Marshall installed as president of New York County Medical Society and became the first Black to head an American Medical Association unit.

Duke Ellington , byname of Edward Kennedy Ellington (born April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died May 24, 1974, New York, N.Y.), American pianist who was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader. One of the originators of big-band jazz, Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of Western music.

Ellington grew up in a secure middle-class family in Washington, D.C. His family encouraged his interests in the fine arts, and he began studying piano at age seven. He became engrossed in studying art during his high-school years, and he was awarded, but did not accept, a scholarship to the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. Inspired by ragtime performers, he began to perform professionally at age 17.

Ellington first played in New York City in 1923. Later that year he moved there and, in Broadway nightclubs, led a sextet that grew in time into a 10-piece ensemble. The singular blues-based melodies; the harsh, vocalized sounds of his trumpeter, Bubber Miley (who used a plunger [“wa-wa”] mute); and the sonorities of the distinctive trombonist Joe (“Tricky Sam”) Nanton (who played muted “growl” sounds) all influenced Ellington’s early “jungle style,” as seen in such masterpieces as “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” (1926) and “Black and Tan Fantasy” (1927).

Extended residencies at the Cotton Club in Harlem (1927–32, 1937–38) stimulated Ellington to enlarge his band to 14 musicians and to expand his compositional scope. He selected his musicians for their expressive individuality, and several members of his ensemble—including trumpeter Cootie Williams (who replaced Miley), cornetist Rex Stewart, trombonist Lawrence Brown, baritone saxophonist Harry Carney, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, and clarinetist Barney Bigard—were themselves important jazz artists. (The most popular of these was Hodges, who rendered ballads with a full, creamy tone and long portamentos.) With these exceptional musicians, who remained with

Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia after a 30-year civil war.

DaMarcus Beasley is a retired professional soccer player. He was born on May 24, 1982 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He played soccer in high school and also participated in the 1999 under 17 soccer World Cup held in New Zealand. His outstanding performance won him the prestigious silver ball award for being the second highest scoring player in the tournament. He joined a private athletic training institute called the IMG Academy, which was based in Florida. He also played in the under 20 team at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship held in Argentina. In March 1999, he joined the Major Soccer League (MLS), having been signed by the team Los Angeles Galaxy. However, he was soon transferred to the Chicago Fire. His performance with them was top notch, and he was named to the Best XI team in 2003. He spent more than four seasons with them, scoring six goals in 13 Champions’ League games which gained him much praise and acclaim.

In July 2004, he was transferred to a Dutch team called PSV Eindhoven. He signed a 4 year contract worth $2.5 million. In his first season with PSV, he helped them win the league title. In another match, he scored a last minute goal to tie a match against a rival team which PSV then won on penalty shootouts. DaMarcus Beasley also became the first American to play in the semifinal of the UEFA Champions League, and scored 4 goals in 12 games. In August 2006, he joined an English soccer team called Manchester City F.C., to whom he was transferred on a loan. He helped his team to win against West Ham United by scoring a goal in the 83rd minute of play. In 2005, he was a finalist for “U.S. Soccer Male Athlete of the Year” award.

In June 2007, he moved to a Scottish club called Rangers F.C. for a lucrative deal worth £700,000, being only the second American to play for them. He helped his team win an important match in the Champions’ League group stage for which he was awarded the Man of the Match trophy. However, he was injured shortly after in an on field collision with the goalkeeper. During one of

Patricia Louise Holte is born in Philadelphia, Pa. She will be better known as Patti LaBelle, organizer and lead singer of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells in 1960. In the 1970s she will reconfigure the group and later reteam with Nona Hendryx and Sara Dash as LaBelle. In 1976, LaBelle will pursue a solo career, gain even more critical and popular acclaim, and win a 1992 Grammy.

Anthony Burns, celebrated fugitive slave, arrested by United States Deputy marshals in Boston. Two thousand United States troops escorted him through the streets of Boston when he was returned to the South on June 3.

HOPE, MD, Walter M. Hard, a young black barber, has invented a device which will improve trolley car service enormously.Hards device, which he has patented, makes it almost impossible for the electrical contact on top of a car to slip off the overhead wire. This will eliminate the many wasteful delays trolley car riders now suffer whenever the contact slips and the care stops dead.

McCoy, E.

Lubricator for Safety Valves

May 24, 1887

Patent No. 363,529

Two regiments, First and Tenth U.S.C.T., repulsed attack by rebel General Fitzhugh Lee. Also participating in battle at Wilsins Wharf Landing, on bank of James River, were a small detachment of white Union troops and a battery of Light artillery.